For decades, conventional textile webs (wovens, knits) have been replaced by so-called xe2x80x9cnonwovenxe2x80x9d structures which, in general, can be classified in three broad categories resulting from their actual manufacturing process, namely nonwovens produced by a so-called xe2x80x9cdry routexe2x80x9d, by a so-called xe2x80x9cmelt routexe2x80x9d and by a so-called xe2x80x9cwet routexe2x80x9d.
The present invention relates to a novel type of material obtained according to the first technique mentioned, namely by a xe2x80x9cdry routexe2x80x9d.
In general, to produce such nonwovens, a web of fibers of predetermined grammage is formed from discontinuous, natural or chemical, fibers by means of a card or other textile production machine, which web is then subjected to a treatment making it possible to give it the appropriate mechanical properties according to the uses to which the product is intended, for example a mechanical needle-punching treatment or a fluid-jet interlacing treatment.
Moreover, it has been known for a long time that the final properties of the product obtained can be modified by producing mixtures of materials, for example by combining together several webs consisting of fibers of a different nature, for example natural, artificial or synthetic fibers.
The aim of the invention is to provide a novel process making it possible to produce such a type of nonwoven article consisting of a mixture of fibers of different nature and which, in the rest of the description, will be denoted by the expression xe2x80x9chybrid nonwovenxe2x80x9d.
Up till now very many proposals have been made for producing hybrid nonwovens and more particularly nonwovens combining together a web of artificial or synthetic fibers and a web of cellulose fibers, especially wood fibers.
The various constituents are advantageously combined together by hydroentangling of fibers, a technique which has been known for a very long time and described, for instance, in patents U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,033,721, 3,214,819 and 3,508,308.
After having produced a first web, a layer of cellulose fibers, especially wood fibers, is deposited on it with a grammage approximately equivalent to that of the artificial or synthetic fibers, said cellulose fibers then being entangled with the chemical fibers, also using a treatment by means of water jets. The product obtained has good mechanical strength properties, these properties essentially being provided by the synthetic fibers, and good absorption properties, these being conferred by the cellulose fibers.
Such products are used especially for the manufacture of xe2x80x9cwet wipesxe2x80x9d denoted in this technical field by the expression xe2x80x9cbaby wipesxe2x80x9d, and in the hygiene field, and also known as cleaning cloths.
This type of hybrid nonwoven is increasingly tending to replace conventional nonwovens composed of a mixture of synthetic fibers (polyester or polypropylene) and artificial fibers (viscose), especially because of its lower manufacturing cost, the cost of wood fibers being three to four times less than viscose fibers.
In the current state of the art, as described above, a product is obtained whose strength and absorption properties are satisfactory but whose appearance and textile feel are unfortunately inferior to those of conventional nonwovens based on artificial and synthetic fibers.
This is due to the fact that the web is unsymmetrical in the thickness, the artificial and synthetic fibers being placed on one side of the web and the natural fibers on the other side.
In order to alleviate this drawback, tricks have been used such as spraying the natural fibers with softening chemicals, but this does not completely overcome the drawback.
Another negative aspect of this type of article is the abrasion resistance of the web, which is much lower on the natural-fiber side; this results during wiping operations in fiber loss (expulsion) which in many cases is regarded as unacceptable for the use of which it is made.
Consequently, in order to alleviate this drawback, it has been proposed to introduce natural fibers as a xe2x80x9csandwichxe2x80x9d between two plies of artificial or synthetic fibers. This approach is not satisfactory from the technical standpoint or from the economic standpoint for the following reasons.
This is because the fact of dividing the grammage of the plies of artificial and/or synthetic fibers by two makes the hydroentangling of these plies very difficult. For example, in the case of a 50 g/m2 product comprising 50% natural fibers (i.e. 25 g/m2) and 50% synthetic fibers in two plies, i.e. 12.5 g/m2 per ply, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to bond these plies together using water jets.
Moreover, the excessively low grammage of the first, support ply does not allow the latter to act as a filtering medium for the natural fibers during their deposition and then their interlacement with water jets. As a result, there is a considerable fiber loss, the fibers being expelled through the support fabric by the water jets, this fiber loss considerably reducing the economic advantage of the process.
The object of the present invention is to alleviate the problems and drawbacks mentioned above and to allow the production of an absorbent nonwoven containing a large amount of natural (wood pulp) fibers exhibiting excellent physical properties (tensile strength, tear strength and abrasion resistance) and good absorptivity, and also having an agreeable feel similar to that of products based on artificial and/or synthetic fibers.
In general, the invention therefore relates to a process allowing the production of a novel type of nonwoven consisting of a mixture of elementary fibers of different nature, which consists in continuously:
producing, by carding or another conventional technique, a first web from chemical (artificial and/or synthetic) fibers;
subjecting said web thus formed to a bonding treatment by means of water jets, said treatment consisting:
in a first step: in consolidating the web by the action of a first series of water jets acting on one of its faces, the web being supported by a drum having microperforations;
in a second step: in structuring the web thus consolidated by means of a roll or on a conveyor, the roll or conveyor being covered with a coarse fabric, by the action of one or more series of water jets;
depositing, on the surface of the lap thus structured, natural fibers (wood fibers) by pneumatic layering;
subjecting the complex thus formed to the action of a new series of water jets acting on the face covered with natural fibers;
carrying out a drying treatment and then collecting the end product in the form of a wound reel.
In order to implement the process according to the invention, the first water-jet treatment will be carried out according to the teachings of FR-A-2 730 246 and FR-A-2 734 285, the contents of which are incorporated in the present description as is required.
As regards the second water-jet treatment, which allows the lap of synthetic and/or artificial fibers to be structured, this is carried out using, as coarse fabric supporting the web, an apertured conveyor of the type described in FP-A-2 741 895, the content of which is also incorporated in the present application as is required.
In accordance with the process according to the invention, the cellulose fibers (wood fibers) may be distributed over the surface of the web of synthetic fibers both on that face which has been subjected to the action of the jets, allowing said lap to be structured, and on the opposite face.
Moreover, the structuring treatment may be carried out by making the second series of jets act both on the same face that has received the impact of the jets producing the consolidation action and on the opposite face to it.
The invention also relates to a novel type of nonwoven product obtained especially by implementing this process.
Such a hybrid nonwoven, which consists of a mixture of fibers of different nature, is characterized in that it is composed of a lap produced from chemical (artificial and/or synthetic) fibers which has received a treatment for bonding and reorienting the fibers by means of water jets, making it possible to have alternating regions of different porosity, natural, especially wood, fibers being preferably distributed within the regions of high porosity and the cohesion of the assembly also being obtained by entanglement due to the action of water jets.